On this episode, Teri-Denise and Brendan skulk back into the shadow world of vampires and the iconic Nosferatu. In part two of the "Vamp" series, they discuss the evolution of vampire lore, emphasizing themes of longing, death, and societal fears. Additionally, they compare the 1922 classic with the 2024 remake, examining the historical context of both films and the symbolism tied to themes of plague and love.

Hello there.

This is Terry Denise, a Lansing Community College student and your host of Ripper in LCC Connect podcast where I interview others and ask about their unique efforts and connections in around and beyond the community of Michigan's capital city.

Hello.

Hi.

Welcome to part two of Vamp here on Ripper.

I am Terry Denise.

I am joined here by Brendan.

Bleh.

Bleh.

It was my best vampire.

That was great.

I liked it.

Thank you.

Do you remember our Count from Sesame Street?

Yeah.

1.

See, I had mentioned that my first introduction into loving vampires was probably Bram Stoker's Dracula of Francis Ford Coppola.

But no, it was the Count.

The Count, which was basically Bela Lugosi's count, right?

That was Bela Lugosi's Dracula.

I believe it was probably.

Yeah, probably.

Probably closer to that.

Did he have glasses?

Like little.

I think he had a monocle.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So good.

I totally forgot about that.

He was what a great character.

And once again, super classy dude.

PBS is the best dude.

Sesame Street.

So we are talking about vampires.

More specifically Nosferatu.

Now, the title of these.

This is part two.

So we had part one.

Thank you so much for enjoying that and joining us here on part two again.

So the title Vamp is the.

And that's also a word where people say talk.

It's our airwaves broadcasting version of like, keep talking, just go with it.

So I love that word in and of itself.

Grace Jones is amazing.

She wears the best costumes ever.

And that woman is just, oh, gosh, queen icon.

Brutally so.

She's also.

This is just a little part.

If you haven't seen, oh, what was it with Eddie Murphy?

Vampire in Brooklyn back in the early 90s.

And.

Oh, boomerang.

Watch Boomerang and then watch Vampire in Brooklyn.

Just get your whole Grace Jones, Eddie Murphy, early 90s, late 80s thing in and you will have the best weekend ever.

That sounds great.

So Vampire in Brooklyn was really good in the best way.

That movie is so colorful.

It's so campy.

So it has the best of.

The best of the ploitation era.

But it also beckons back to just, you know, classic romantic style.

And then it has that vibrant editing and producing in it.

And then of course, it's Eddie Murphy and a different character where you get to see him play.

And he plays like a street preacher.

I Believe or not, a street preacher, just like a regular general preacher.

So you see him do Eddie Murphy, which is playing multiple characters in an entire film, which is crazy.

That man's got.

He's gotta be on all kinds of.

Just throwing things off all day long.

Man is ultimate adhd.

I think it's the flubber.

The flubber probably did it.

Yeah, for sure.

Nutty Professor.

How many characters in that anyway?

Too many.

Too many.

Too many.

I wanna see him in another vampire movie, though.

We need, like, Son of Vampire of Brooklyn.

Please come.

His laugh in.

That was very good, too.

murnau.

And then we talked a little bit about different iterations of the vampire story from Bram Stoker's Dracula, which just comes from different ideas of this creature from beyond or from the dead.

How people dealt with.

I guess people just dying in general is why these stories were created in the first place.

That.

So people just coming back from the dead to comfort people sometimes maybe, or to scare people.

So if you had, like, the worst landlord ever, and you were like, that guy was a bloodsucker, you know, he sucked all my monies from me while he was alive.

I bet anything he's sucking the blood from everybody while he's dead, too.

And people would just sit in the tavern and laugh at that.

That would be a thing, I'm sure.

And why we got those stor.

I mean.

Yeah, people would be worried about so many things.

They even put bells on the coffins just to make sure.

I'm sure.

No, that was really just because they didn't have the machines that we have now that can tell you whether you're brain dead or hard monitor.

Yeah.

I wonder if that's really all it was.

No, it's just their heart stops.

Old Walter was just sleeping.

You're right.

So anyway.

But old Walter was not a bloodsucker like NOsnosferatu.

Spoilers.

Spoiler alert.

We're gonna get into it because we're gonna get into the costuming, maybe even the look of the entire film.

And just what it sparked in each of our imaginations to how it affected us with our love for film and just culturally, how it was, the timing of it.

The plague is kind of a back end of the story.

It's almost another character.

Yeah, definitely.

So the plague comes off of a ship.

We see that perhaps it's just the rats.

Is it just the rats that are creating the plague?

But there's also this haunting figure that's going around that seems to be maybe killing everybody.

But is it just the plague or is it just the shadow figure?

Or is that in.

And it's of itself what the story is just like the shadow figure, an illusion, just like a method to storytelling.

Like that this vampire is actually a symbol of the plague that we're going through.

Through wartime even, that we're going through, through any.

A lot of different things going on.

So we get a lot of these blood related troubles that are going on.

And in these stories we keep seeing these telltale accounts, which.

Whether it's in a Dracula movie and whatnot, but it's just sickness and missing another person.

You think of blood, you think of the heart.

So you think of love then as well, with the heart?

Sure, yeah.

There's all sorts of things at play here that I find very interesting in the sense that.

And just sticking with the idea of plague.

Many stories do heavily hinge on this idea that they are bringers of disease, of something that is unseen.

And it often is like you're saying, it's a shadow, creates a sense of doubt and chaos.

As I was saying, in terms of theme, it's like seeing how this theme has morphed over time.

Because it's like in Bram Stoker's original novelization of it, the quest of the two star crossed lovers, or two protagonists, as you might call them.

They're not necessarily the end goal for Dracula.

Dracula needs to get to London to then take over the world.

It's less about romantic sense of love.

It's this idea of maybe long lost love.

And then all this leading up to.

As you were saying in the last episode with Bram Stoker's Dracula here We're like at the pinnacle of mainstream cinema.

This is an auteur filmmaker who is, like I said, at the height of his power in the machine, in the industry.

This is the story he's chosen.

And he's not only making a film that was definitely a 90s film he was using, he made a crank camera.

Yeah, the crank camera.

Right.

Like, there's that where he's searching for her in the street.

Yeah, where Gary Oldman's looking for her in the street.

They created an old style silent era crank camera to record that sequence.

And like we were saying, you know, it being a story about love, there's Gary Oldman dripping with charisma and, you know, Mac.

Exactly.

Nosferatu is, you know, Bram Serka's Dracula.

Very big Hollywood tentpole type of film.

Then Nosferatu again, another tentpole studio film.

But now it's incorporating all of these elements.

It transcends into being a new version of the story that can then go on.

Vampire itself.

Exactly, Exactly.

So we're 20 years in the making for his screenplay of this version.

He finally got it to film.

So with Coppola's version, he, like you were just saying, encompassing all of these old elements of film, these just the use of like little models and then filming against another screen behind that.

If you look in the behind the scenes, you'll see how they've made all of these things and what you were referring to with a crane camera, those elements and just making the huge nod to everything that came before you as much as possible.

It's not just the Dracula stories, but the Nosferatu, but everything else, anything to do with vampire tales and whatnot and bringing those elements to scream, even just with the Brides.

Because there wasn't a lot to do with the Brides ever.

Until, like a lot of the Hammer films brought that in.

And some of the classic as well.

But a lot of the Hammer films had a lot of the Brides in it.

A lot of nudity, a lot of gore and a lot of fake blood everywhere, but a lot of big hair and bigger.

That's what I was thinking last episode was how you're saying we get into the 70s with exploitation, you know, Hammer horror and again, just a good example of how the movies are really a good expression of the times they were made in.

Yeah.

And then.

Yeah, so there's a lot of these.

The horrific elements that come through in play that especially Coppola with his version borrowed from and made that heavy.

Once again, nod to.

And then we see Eggers doing that, as well as incorporating Coppola in there as well, because he.

You can feel the Coppolae.

You can feel the Coppolae.

What is that?

That rolls off the tongue.

You could totally feel, though, some of this essence and flavor that Eggers was just like.

I also, too, nod to you.

Thank you so much, Francis.

And then also on backwards with what he did, as well as emerging as.

As this new director with a new eye, a new vision for the story.

This weird love story, this predatory love story, this controversial love story.

It's such a weird thing because Bill Skarsgrd's version of Count Orlok, the monster in this film, is probably one of the creepiest ones I've ever seen.

Gary Oldman's version is very.

Like you said, he is scary in that film, but he's dramatic in that film as well.

But he's got, like you said, the charisma.

They make him a point.

Yeah, they make him a point to be sexy and, like, he's got that smooth skin and that long hair and those cool little sunglasses.

Yeah.

The whole Victorian era.

So with this version, we see, like, he's gross.

Yes.

He's not Max Shrek.

He still has that haunting a feel of Shrek.

But this is different.

This is like, I'm going to scare you no matter what.

I don't care.

You see the different versions of me and there's like, weird half hair.

So it's the Cossack look, which was just a group of area.

There's a bunch of soldiers.

So again, bringing that element of, like, PTSD veteran, but mixed in with this, like, super creepy vibe of, like, a predatory entity that comes from beyond, who originally is answering our young female protagonist when she's a child.

He's answering her, calling out into the darkness to just get some comfort.

And like, oh, when we're younger.

Very like, I wish.

I wish upon a star.

I wish upon this light moon up here.

And then the horrifying things is that it answers.

It answers.

That's terrifying.

I mean, if you stare at the abyss long enough, the abyss will stare back.

Well, I mean, I mean, because.

I mean, was it an angel, though?

Maybe she thought it was an angel and it was like, my angel's coming to get me and save me.

And then of course, she forgets because she's.

Because this is a thing that she was like 8 years old or something.

Like 9.

Sure.

And then all of a sudden, this creature's like, I have come to collect on your prayer that you put through when you are a child.

And it's like, I was a child, you weirdo.

What's wrong with you?

And so, like, as you say, as in the original Nosferatu as well, our main character, Ellen, she's the one that has to.

She puts herself out there to go like, oh, well, I guess I did want that.

Maybe.

I don't know.

And she herself puts herself into.

We see this in the Francis Ford as well with Winona Ryder at the very end her Mina giving herself over to.

She's the one that actually ends Dracula's life.

At the very end of that particular film, she's the one that's just like, no, I know you.

I've fallen in love with you.

I've fallen in love with who you thought I was.

Like your previous princess, that we were supposed to get married and whatnot and have our.

Or finish out our marriage together and live our lives.

So she too, in that instance, is just like, I'm going to do the thing that nobody else here can give you.

And that is, like you said, be the light to your darkness, which is what you are craving.

You want this ending.

That's really what love is.

Yeah, it's just taking the time.

I see someone else has some darkness.

I wonder if a little light might help.

Oh, that's very sweet.

But tying back that theme of plague and how this film seems to embody much like our modern culture, like the modern zeitgeist of mental health, and not only mental health, but the view of self as it's viewed through others, we're very focused on there should be a space for mental health.

Only you will know how you feel.

So if you're not up to it, you're the only one that can know that.

But then with that in mind, knowing that maybe other people are going through things so it's again, just making space for them so that they can just know that it's okay to be okay.

Like, you're allowed.

There's a space to feel the way you feel, so you're allowed to recognize that feeling and not worry about the weight of it.

And.

Because it is missing this element that could put it to rest and basically neutralize it.

See, I wonder if Orlok wanted that to happen.

Does he get.

There's a very moment at the end as he's drinking her blood and she looks and sees the sun coming up and she's like, okay, this is the moment he looks up and recognizes what.

He sees, what's going on, and he just goes back to drinking her blood.

And on one hand, you could easily say it's the.

You know, it's insatiable hunger.

And he's a vampire.

Parasitic.

Exactly.

It's only doing what it's going to do in that moment.

Also, like a baby.

It's very infant, like in that sense, where it's just like.

Well, then he's complete, though.

He's right where he should be.

Exactly.

That's not wrong or bad or othered.

The framing of that also visually is very much so that it's a very.

Not virgin mother, but it is kind of the virgin mother.

It's like a temple.

It is.

It's a very sacred moment between them.

It's very like.

It looks like almost a tarot card, even.

Ooh, yeah.

And it looks so.

With the.

So at the end, we see a lot of floral displays, which is a theme throughout the film, where Ellen is getting all of these flowers from her husband and from Hutter.

And at some point in time, we keep seeing the flowers keep dying all of a sudden, which is allusion to this vampire creature coming along and basically killing everything from where it enters.

So its trail leaves behind nothing but death, basically.

And we see that in the flowers, but in the end, we see nothing but bouquets falling on their bodies, which end up being together, her being dying with the creature of Orlok as we see them.

Interesting, too, with another theme with time that plays into this, because at the beginning of the film, we see Hutter and Ellen, and Hutter's late to work.

So.

And it's almost kind of like this thing with.

I don't know if it's a funny stereotype or whatever, but there's a thing with Germans and their time.

And then it's like being very on time is the best thing you could probably be, especially for work.

And what on time is five minutes too late.

Exactly.

There you go.

So we see Hutter and he's a newlywed with Ellen.

And they are.

He is late because they're newlyweds and they've been up all night and up all morning doing things as newlyweds do.

So we see him going to work late and they're just like, oh, you are late for your appointment and don't let this happen again.

They basically kind of give him a forewarning, but in a very nice way.

Cause they're like, okay, you got a new wife, we get it.

But at the ending, we see Hutter and he is racing literally against time and the son to try to save his wife.

Because he's got a different plan than for her to become the martyr.

Which is another one of these things.

A theme about being a martyr, about giving yourself to death to spare lives or to maybe take lives, I don't know.

Which is what the vampire does, is he gave his self.

He made a pact.

And so we get into very super crazy zones there where there's a lot of dark arts at play.

There's a lot of the symbols and sigils.

And you see that in the original Nosferatu as well.

But in this version, it gets heavy into there where there's.

It's really, really dark and heavy at points in time where you see the.

Hutters, he's kind of like the Renfield character.

He's the one that goes mad.

Yes, he's playing too much with candles.

All those fumes are destroying his rain, sir.

But, yeah, he gets in there and boy, oh boy, we go into.

When we go also into the village and there's nothing but destruction there.

You see all of this where people keep giving themselves to.

They let Hutter into their village.

When Hutter goes on the trek to find the Count and he goes through a village and those people there are like, I don't know if you want to do too much here or there or whatnot.

And we're going to be laughing at you, silly, to go seek this out.

We're gonna tell you what's going on.

So we're like, okay, fine, we'll let you into our village.

We'll let you know what's in the know.

And then they end up dying because they let this person in almost.

You know, it's almost like they.

They engage with too much.

They let too much in.

There's a lot of giving oneself to the notion of love, to being a martyr.

And yeah, we definitely see that all through this particular film.

Makes it effortless and beautiful.

So with that allusion to a lot of what you see with even just the religious aspect of, like, the Abrahamic religious aspect.

So you can pull in the Virgin Mary as she's looking upon her, her child as he's dying, as the Christ as she holds the Christ.

And he's like, it's nothing but the blood that's spilling.

There's nothing but these tales of blood encountering over and over again in a lot of these themes.

This is a great place to stop because it looks like we're gonna have to have a part three.

This is.

We're probably gonna have to have a part three.

All right, this is Terry, Denise and Brendan.

Yeah.

On Ripper.

We'll be right back with part three.

See you soon on another day.

Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in to Ripper.

You can find more about this and other LCC Connect podcasts at lccconnect.

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